The menace of the motorcyclists

12:00AM BST 15 Jul 2001

HERE on the Nottinghamshire/ Leicestershire border, we have hundreds of enthusiasts who like to dress up in gaily-coloured leathers, jump on to their powerful and far from standard bikes with deafening exhausts and usually illegal number plates, and then scream out to the country for their gatherings and road races.

On the road itself, they intimidate other road-users as they blast by at speeds often well in excess of 100mph. Hostelries out in the sticks hold "bikers' nights" and for hour after hour, one hears the scream of highly tuned engines destroying what little peace we can get nowadays.

It's obvious from their behaviour that many of them have some sort of death wish. Well, that's their choice, but if they are going to go around killing themselves, could they at least do it quietly?